A Tiny Island With Open Arms

November 3, 1985|By Ramsey Campbell of The Sentinel Staff

GRAND TURK, GRAND TURK — History books cite San Salvador as Columbus' first island discovery. But natives of this British Crown colony say he made his first landfall on their eastern shore Oct. 12, 1492. Island officials commemorated that event last month during pageantry staged to give Grand Turk its historical due.

Historians do acknowledge that Columbus' diaries give a remarkably accurate description of the island and concede that he may indeed have been its first tourist. But Columbus apparently wasn't impressed enough to give the island either a name or a place in history before he sailed on.

Grand Turk is part of the Turks and Caicos chain of islands which encompasses eight larger islands and about 30 smaller cays in a 75-by-50-mile area southeast of the Bahamas. The Turks and the Caicos groups of islands are separated by the Turks Island Passage, a 22-mile channel.

The Turks Islands comprise Grand Turk, home of the government, and Salt Cay, which is an even smaller island.

Grand Turk is about 7 square miles of sand and rock that barely rises above the Atlantic Ocean. There are no palm trees on Grand Turk. In fact, it has no trees at all. But there are plenty of cactus plants. According to a legend about the origin of the island's name, the red blossums of a common cactus variety reminded an early settler of a Turkish fez.

About 3,000 people live on Grand Turk, most of them on its western end. The bulk of the residents work for the government.

The interior of the island contains a series of large shallow ponds formed after Bermudians moved to the island to rake salt from the flats for sale to the United States. The minimal-profit salt-gathering trade was abandoned in the 1950s. Earlier industries -- cotton and shellfish -- thrived on the island until they were destroyed by hurricanes at the turn of the century.

The island's hard times are evident at once by the weather-beaten Church of God of the Prophesy bus that picks up the sprinkling of visitors who arrive each week, transporting them to customs. In contrast, a new three-story Barclay's Bank building and a new office building form what seems to be the island's business district.

Since the 1960s, island officials have hung their hopes of economic revival exclusively on tourism. But despite the island's beauty, its reportedly good sport fishing and diving, and the friendly people here, there aren't many tourists.

Tourists are a welcomed rarity on the island and word of their arrival spreads fast.

''You must have been the one who got off the plane today,'' said an Australian-born electrical engineer temporarily based on Grand Turk to rebuild a landing jetty. The jetty, located on the south end of the island, is for the barge that brings in food and supplies from nearby port cities.

But the hotel barman explains that tourism is in its slow season right now. How long has it been this way?

''About three years,'' he replies. The suspicion lingers that it may go back further.

Even the few tourist guidebooks that mention Grand Turk note that the only night life is conversation with fellow hotel guests -- if there are any.

There are three major hotels on the island. The newest and largest by far is Hotel Kittina, which has 45 rooms and apartments.

The selection of beers and wines in the hotel bars and restaurants is extremely limited. Food menus lean more toward grilled hamburgers than island cooking. There was excitement among the islanders one afternoon as a rumor spread that one of the hotel bars had received a shipment of St. Pauli Girl beer. Unfortunately, it was a false report.

The islanders are deeply religious. On Sunday evenings the scores of small churches that dot Grand Turk are packed and gospel songs fill the night air.

Despite the physical remoteness of Grand Turk, the residents are not out of touch with the rest of the world. Everybody, it seems, has their own satellite dish or cable television connection.

''I love hockey,'' says the hotel barman who can't wait for the next NHL season to start. ''That Vancouver is some team, they played tough last year.'' Half-a-dozen local baseball fans are perched in the cramped Poop Deck Bar watching the Atlanta Braves lose again.

The inter-island Turks and Caicos Airline is the main link to many Caribbean islands. Both the scheduled departures and destinations are subject to sudden change without notice and long layovers in Grand Turk are not unusual.

The islands' connection with the U.S. mainland is by Gulf Atlantic Airlines, which has two connecting flights a week from Miami, and Pan Am, which travels the same route three times a week.